The Shield – End of an Era
It’s all over and, unlike with The Sopranos, it ended with a bang. I’m assuming that if you are reading this that you have seen it but if you haven’t seen it stop reading right now and watch it – then read this.
Who thought that Shane was going to kill his wife, son, and unborn daughter? Committing suicide seemed like a possibility from where I was sitting but to do the honor killings as well? That was a total shock.
How could you do that? I just don’t get it. It doesn’t fit the type of character that Shane was and that image of his wife and son laying in that bed dead will haunt me for some time.
The whole final season was like watching a train-wreck in progress. Vic giving up Ronnie to save his double-crossing wife, Dutch hunting a serial killer kid, Claudette dying while chasing her white wale, ICE fumbling their investigation into the Mexican cartel only to be saved by the duty-bound Vic, Aceveda being as dirty as possible while winning the mayoral election. It was not a perfect ending but it does seem to be a fitting ending for this series.
This show is the definition of a tragedy. Every character was fundamentally flawed and they were all working in a system that is extremely corrupt but, after all, is probably not too far-fetched a portrait of the system we live with.
Vic is a cop-killer. So was Shane. Everyone on the Strike Team was dirty because they were playing all sides against each other and trying to skim as much as they could for themselves. But did they really have a choice?
Yes, they did. But amidst all of this chaos and corruption it did seem like they were getting the job done. Well, that’s not really right though, is it? They were managing the situation as best they saw fit.
Nothing they did would have “cleaned up the streets.” And if the Strike Team were all sweetness and light they would have gotten nothing done. That is, unfortunately, the problem with fighting corruption.
In order to really fight corruption you have to work outside the system because the system is designed so that nothing good can really get done. It’s a complete shame that this is the case but it is the truth.
The one part of the final episode I didn’t like was the sanctimonious foil played by the musician turned actor will.i.am. He played the part well but I thought the character was just an indulgent throw-in by the writers. The idea that a picket line could seriously stop crack dealers, which is something he supposedly had done, is preposterous.
The solution to inner city ills is not that simple. Change doesn’t happen because you can get some people together for the occasional community gathering. That feel-good stuff works only in the minds of writers and those who aren’t responsible for affecting real change.
Sometimes you have to get men and women in there to do bad things. And that’s basically how I view the Strike Team. Some of the things they did are reprehensible but they also worked to keep drugs away from children and tried to save as many people from the destructive paths they were on as they could.
In the end it looks like Vic is decimated. He is going to have to work in a pathetic desk job for the next three years, his children are in protective custody with the intent of never letting him see them again, and Ronnie, his last team member alive, is off to jail because Vic betrayed him.
Something tells me that this isn’t the end though. There are still many unresolved story lines. And there’s Vic getting his gun out of his lock box in his ICE desk with that look of determination I am so used to after all of these years.
Will he leave his purgatory with ICE to spring Ronnie from jail? Will he ever see his kids again? And what is going to happen to Farmington? With his absence make that city fall further into the abyss?
Probably. But isn’t that the point? Even though Vic is basically a villain he is also the hero. We expect our cops to do miracles but we are outraged when they rough someone up.
In the end that is why I loved this show. There is this hopelessly lost city and it is being saved by this even more hopelessly lost individual. And without The Shield I am going to be a little lost as well. Every time one of these great shows has their series finale a hole opens up that can’t be filled by all the vapid programming that pollutes my television set.
Shows like this and the Sopranos give me a glimpse into the seedy underbelly of the world. They have left me with the realization that even if the main characters had played everything by the book it wouldn’t have changed anything. That’s a bleak outlook on life but it’s reality.
There are very bad people out there doing very bad things. I don’t know what the solution to all our ills are but picket lines and doing the same things we are doing right now will not solve any of those problems.
All I can do is what is right and at least appreciate those that are trying to do the right thing even though every last jackal in a politician’s suit will burn them at the stake the first chance they get. Oh, and I can still enjoy my cigars and whiskey… as long as they are still legal.
24: Redemption is on Tonight
I’m a big 24 fan and while I would be the first one to say that the show has deteriorated somewhat in the last couple of years it is far better than most things on television. Especially considering the fact that the last time I got to watch a new episode was about a year and a half ago! Damn writer’s strike.
While Jack is running through the fictitious African country of Sengala saving children from being forced into military service and politicians in DC are trying to figure out how to prosecute Jack for saving the world at least six times (in six days nonetheless!) I will be lighting up a big cigar that will hopefully last most of the whole two hours. Until then here is the 24: Redemption trailer.
The Unit is a Cigar Smoker’s Television Show
I can’t believe I forgot to talk about The Unit the other day when I wrote about Sons of Anarchy. While it is true that there is more cigar smoking going on in SoA I have to say that my favorite between the two shows is The Unit for a couple of reasons.
First off, The Unit has been around for a longer time. I know what I am going to get from that show from now on. The same cannot be said for SoA. There’s a chance that they can be going through story lines a lot quicker than they should be and they might run out of ideas.
Secondly, The Unit is on network television. While this is also a negative since they can’t do the more edgy stories it is a net plus because you know CBS is going to be able to afford many more seasons of The Unit. The same cannot be said for SoA. Even if it does become a hit on satellite TV that doesn’t mean anything. Just look at another one of my favorites, The Shield. It’s still doing well ratings-wise, I think, but they are shutting it down because it’s just costing to much to produce.
Thirdly, The Unit is about the military. Sure, marauding motorcycle clubs are awesome to watch but there’s just something about watching Special Operations guys completing missions. Maybe I like the good guys (The Unit) better because during my formative years I read nearly every Tom Clancy book and watched John Wayne movies with my dad. But, let’s face it, the good guys are obvious with The Unit and the same can’t be said about SoA.
Fine, this last point does need some more explanation. I know that the vast majority of situations we encounter don’t present us with purely good or purely bad/evil options. And the writers of The Unit know this as well. While the Delta Force operators on The Unit are mostly good, decent people they are routinely faced with situations that push the bounds of their morality, or code, if you will. It still is just as complex a show as SoA or 24, another one of my favorites.
The last factor that is in The Unit‘s favor over SoA is that Dennis Haysbert is the lead actor. The ex-president from 24 is a big-time cigar smoker and also an avid wine lover. And, even though The Unit is on network television, they have smoked cigars on the show in the past. I don’t know for sure but I would wager a pretty big bet that many of our military men and women smoke cigars. Not a majority of them by any means but a good sized minority of them.
Alright, enough with this comparing and contrasting. Both shows are great and should be watched by any cigar smoker. The Unit, in particular, is an action-packed thinking mans shoot ‘em up hour-long drama that has always impressed.
Like 24, The Unit will kill off major characters (24 is the undisputed king of this by a large margin, however), which adds an air of unpredictability to the show. And the guys aren’t always successful. So, unlike those law and cop “dramas,” there actually is some drama for this show. For example, in a show a couple of weeks ago Haysbert’s character promised a group of prostitutes that he would free them. Unfortunately for the prostitutes, the mission got in the way and some of the bad guys got away with the prostitutes.
Perhaps the best thing about The Unit is that they actually have the guy who wrote the book on the Delta Force, Inside Delta Force, as a major part of the production of this show. He actually knows how things work in the black world of Special Ops and it shows. There aren’t any James Bond-ish flying cars or Mission Impossible helicopters flying in a tunnel ridiculousness.
The Unit is all about misdirection, brains, deceit, and force. In the end the good guys will always win the day even if not all the victories are not total ones.
One last thing, I would be remiss if I don’t mention the women of The Unit. Their stories are just as captivating as the stories of the guys on mission. The women have to deal with their own problems that are frequently exacerbated by the fact that their husbands are members of one of the world’s most elite fighting forces.
What this all ads up to is tension. There’s tension on each mission, tension between husband and wife, mother and daughter, between shooters and their colonel, soldier and politician, even between team members themselves. No story line stands still on this show and everything inevitably goes off in some totally unforeseen direction.
The Unit is an awesome show and is absolutely worthy of an hours worth of a cigar smoker’s time. This show is highly recommended by me.
Sons of Anarchy is a Cigar Smoker’s Show
Ever since The Sopranos went off the air there has been a hole in my TV-watching schedule. There no longer was a show for cigar smokers. Sure, I watch shows like The Shield and 24 (when it’s on) but all those shows for men lacked cigars. Then I found a little show called Sons of Anarchy.
Sons of Anarchy is a show in the same vein as The Sopranos, except on bikes. The lead character Jax, played by Charlie Hunnam, is pretty much the equivalent of James Gandolfini’s Tony. Jax, like Tony, grapples with many of the same questions that Tony does. “Are we doing the right thing?” “Is there more to life than this?” “Can I be a good person and be a gangster?”
It is this complexity found in the lead character that really sets these shows apart. It’s almost like the writers put a person who at his core is decent and caring but who also is capable of shooting a man in the head and then sleep with a woman in the same room… with the body on the floor. (That happened on last night’s show.)
What first attracted me to the show was how it was going to be edgy. Solidly anti-government with a flair for the dramatic. But it was the cigars being smoked by a couple of the characters that really piqued my initial interest in the show.
Two of the characters, Clay (Ron Perlman) and Bobby (Mark Boone Jr.), smoke cigars in at least one scene a show. Clay, the leader of the motorcycle club SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original Charter) is completely alpha male.
During one particular episode, Fun Town, the Sons capture a rapist who had assaulted a young girl earlier in the show. Clay and some other club members presented the rapist to the girl’s father so that the father could shoot the man. When the father, a straight laced businessman, fails to pull the trigger Clay steps in without a moments worth of hesitation and executes the vile rapist.
Bobby, the club’s Jewish accountant, is frequently seen with a cigar in hand. He is the type of guy who can do Elvis impersonations one minute and then go kill someone the next.
The person who really steals the show isn’t one of the guys, it’s the matriarch of the club – Gemma. Gemma, played by the bad-to-the-bone Katey Sagal, is the glue that holds the club together behind the scenes. She never attends any of the meetings but holds more sway than almost anyone, even Clay and Jax (who is the club’s VP).
After all, she is Clay’s “old lady” (wife) and Jax’s mom (Clay isn’t Jax’s dad). There are many times when she is more ruthless than most of the murderous club members could ever think of being. Heck, in one of the earlier episodes this season she told Clay that he has to do whatever it took to make sure Jax (her son!) wouldn’t screw things up for SAMCRO. That’s cold!
If you haven’t watched the show yet you definitely should tune in. It is on the FX Network on Wednesday nights starting at 10pm Eastern with a couple of replays later that night and one on Sunday night. With only four episodes left this season you might want to check out some of the older episodes at Hulu.com.
